


The Cold Truth

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, Rare Pairings, Unconventional Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-02
Packaged: 2018-03-10 05:04:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3277757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seeing Caitlin as Killer Frost isn't the most shocking thing about the day. </p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cold Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Future fic, not comics compliant, not canon compliant.

Barry Allen might be the fastest man in the world but there were still some things that could stop him in his tracks. 

Extreme cold for one. 

And when the extreme cold was radiating from the hands and arms of Caitlin Snow, that was double the reason to have him standing still. 

Cisco's voice in his ear was telling him a million things to try but in that alley, in that moment, Barry couldn't bring himself to move. All he could do was stare as Caitlin, already enveloped in frost, brown hair turned white, skin an unnatural pallor, began to stretch her hand out towards him, a sheet of ice starting to form along the pavement. 

"Caitlin, you don't want to do this." It was Iris who spoke and Barry, not for the first time since she'd discovered his secret, cursed her inquisitive nature and her uncanny ability to follow a lead on a meta human sighting. His fears were well founded when Caitlin turned her attention to Iris, the ice beginning to move in her direction before stopping. 

"You need to leave." Caitlin's voice didn't sound like hers, sounded harsh and terrible, as if the words were costing her great effort. "Now."

Just then there was a screech of brakes, the sound of car doors opening and running footsteps. Next thing he knew, Eddie was in front of Iris, putting his body between her and Caitlin, while Joe was standing beside Barry, staring at Caitlin with a horrified expression on his face.

"Caitlin, listen to me." Barry tried again. "Cisco and Doctor Wells, they've been working on something to help you... you need to come..."

If Caitlin's voice was terrible, the laugh she emitted was like nails down a chalkboard. "What, throw me in the pipeline like all the other freaks? Or bring me to experiment on like some kind of human rat? Is that what you expect me to agree to?"

"They wouldn't do that..." But Barry knew he wasn't getting through to her and from the muttering in his ear, so did Cisco. 

"Caitlin." Joe's voice surprised them all, strong and firm and loud, loud enough to have Caitlin looking right at him. A flicker of something almost like pain crossed her face and as Barry watched, Joe took a step forward, hand outstretched towards her. "Let us help you," he said, voice quieter now, the one he'd used to soothe Barry after childhood nightmares. "You know Cisco and Wells won't hurt you... you know that, Caitlin..." It appeared the voice as useful on Caitlin as it had been on monsters in the closet because her hand moved downwards and there was a definite wobble to her chin. "We can help you, but you've got to stop this... I know you can do this, Catie, you're one of the strongest people I know... Please... Let us help you."

Barry felt his jaw drop as he looked at the two of them, heard his own voice repeat, "Catie?" 

Caitlin didn't react to him though, all her attention was on Joe who, as he was speaking, had taken more steps in her direction. Slowly, her hands fell to her sides, all ice and frost dissipating, leaving her trembling from head to foot. "Joe?" she asked in a voice more fragile than Barry had ever heard from her and Joe nodded. 

"I'm here, Catie," he said and that was all she heard before her eyes rolled in her head and her knees buckled underneath her. 

Barry Allen might be the fastest man in the world but on this day Joe West was faster, crossing to Caitlin before Barry had even seen him begin to move. He caught her before she hit the ground, lowering her gently, one hand on her back, the other pushing her hair back from her face with such gentleness Barry almost felt like an intruder for looking. 

Then Joe looked up at him and Barry heard himself say, "What the hell..."

Joe ignored him. "She needs to get to STAR Labs." When Barry just stared at him, still processing what he'd just seen, Joe did something Barry had hardly ever seen him do - he raised his voice. "Now!"

Shaking himself, Barry walked over and picked up Caitlin. Dimly he heard Joe saying, "I'll meet you there," before he moved away, carrying Caitlin to STAR Labs as quickly as he could. 

By the time Joe managed to get there, Barry had deposited Caitlin on one of the beds, filled Cisco and Doctor Wells in on what had happened and changed out of his suit into a pair of sweatpants and a STAR labs sweatshirt. He still had more than enough time to pace up and down the corridor while he waited for Joe, his mind working overtime still trying to make sense of what he had seen. 

"Where is she?" were the first words from Joe's lips and Barry dimly noticed, somewhere on the back of his mind, that Joe was as pale as Barry had ever seen him, looked completely shell shocked.  

Barry knew the feeling. 

Which was probably why he didn't answer Joe's question straight away, instead crossing his arms over his chest, staring the older man down. "You. And Caitlin."

It was a statement, not a question and Joe just stared at him blankly for a moment before a familiar expression crossed his face. It was the one that Barry had seen a hundred times growing up, the expression that said, "No, you may not take the car out for a spin after having only one lesson," or to Iris, "over my dead body will you go out of the house wearing that." Barry hadn't seen it for a long time and while in years gone by he would have backed down, this time he stood his ground. 

Joe lifted an eyebrow, Joe speak for, "we're really doing this now?"

Barry continued to stare. 

Barry knew he'd won the moment Joe closed his eyes and sighed, shoulders slumping. Strangely enough, it didn't feel like much of a victory. "Yeah," Joe said, standing up straight, looking Barry in the eye. "Me and Caitlin."

It was all he said and the confirmation left Barry with a hundred more questions. "When? How Why?"

He stopped talking when Joe looked up to the ceiling and actually laughed. Running a hand over his face, he shook his head, took a deep breath before he started to speak. "When? About six months ago, give or take. A little after the whole Firestorm thing. How? I'm not telling you that. Why?" He spread his hands out, gave a helpless shrug. "It just happened." 

Barry shook his head. "She's my friend," he managed. "Iris's friend."

Joe grimaced at the mention of his daughter's name and Barry suddenly remembered her presence in the alley, the fact that she'd seen and heard the exact same thing as he had. "I know," Joe whispered, looking down, and for the first time, he sounded regretful. "She's pretty pissed at me."

"Can you blame her?  It's not the first time you've kept secrets from her."

Joe looked up at him, fire in his eyes. "We were going to tell you... both of you. We just needed time to work some things out..."

Part of Barry wanted to know what they could possibly have had to work out. Another, larger, part couldn't think about that, couldn't look at Joe, couldn't stay there any longer. "I need to go," he said and he was gone before Joe could say anything else. 

He ended up at Iris and Eddie's place and when he opened the door to her angry tears, he simply pulled her into a hug and let her cry. 

*  
When Caitlin opened her eyes, she immediately closed them again against the brightness of the lab. She must have made some sort of sound because instantly she heard footsteps approaching her bed. When they stopped, a hand touched the back of hers, a familiar voice saying, "It's ok, Caitlin... you're safe now."

She opened her eyes to see Cisco staring down at her, brows knit into a frown. The smile that came to his lips when her eyes met his made her want to smile back but she couldn't. Not until she knew. "How bad?"

His smile dropped along with his gaze. "It was bad," he said and while she could tell that he hated telling her that, she appreciated his honesty. "You trashed the lab pretty good... Some of the city too. But you didn't hurt anyone." The last was added quickly, probably because he saw the tears in her eyes. 

"It's a little hazy..." she told him, and he nodded, fingers tightening on hers. 

"Probably for the best," he said. "I have something for you that might help." She straightened up as he took a box from a nearby table. In it were a syringe and a silver bangle, a odd combination if ever she'd seen one. "Now, I can't take credit for this, Doctor Wells came up with it... I can't even understand most of the science behind it, it's seriously from the future type stuff..." She must have looked impatient because he started talking quickly.  "The syringe has a serum... Doctor Wells can tell you more but basically, it'll react with the coolant in your blood, bring it back to normal. But it's a temporary thing ... This bracelet has a little button, see, and when you press it, it's like it jump starts the serum..." Taking the bangle in her hand, she held it up and studied it, seeing the tiny button all but hidden in the engraving. Cisco shrugged, taking a step away from the bed. "I tried to design something I thought you might actually like to wear..." He cleared his throat. "I just hope Joe won't mind you getting jewellery from another guy."

Caitlin looked up at him sharply, wondering why he'd say that but when she realised he was not looking at her, she turned her head towards the door to see Joe standing there. He looked worse than she'd ever seen him, worse even than those first few days when they'd met after the particle accelerator explosion, but when he saw her, he managed to smile. "I think in this case I'll make an exception, Cisco," he said, smiling at the younger man and just like that, it all came back to Caitlin. 

The alley, Barry and Iris begging her to calm down, not to hurt anyone, including herself. 

Joe and Eddie arriving in a squeal of brakes and blue lights. 

Joe, his face so worried, reaching out a hand to her the last thing she saw before it all went black. 

"Joe..." She whispered his name and he sucked in a deep breath, eyes looking suspiciously shiny. "I'm sorry..."

He shook his head, stepping towards her and Cisco took a giant step back. "I'm just going to be..." He motioned over his shoulders with both hands. "somewhere else..."

Caitlin was only dimly aware of him leaving because by then Joe was standing beside her bed, looking down at her. "You don't need to apologise to me, not now, not ever, for what happened today, you got that?" He took her hand as he spoke, raised it to his lips. The warmth of his skin on hers, of his eyes on her, was  more than she could ever have hoped for. 

"But Barry was there... Iris... They know."

He nodded, lips pursing with a grimace. "Yeah... I think me calling you Catie was a pretty big give away." He was the only one who'd ever called her that - Cate had been Ronnie's name for her so he'd never used that, and though Catie had surprised them both one evening when it slipped out one evening over dinner, she'd been more surprised to find that she liked the sound of it on his lips. It had stuck ever after, only used when they were alone, until today. 

Closing her eyes she leaned back against the headboard, fighting back the tears she could feel forming behind her eyes, fighting back the cold she could feel creeping through her bones. "They're mad," she guessed, because it was the only thing that made sense, the only thing that explained how shattered he'd looked when he'd walked into the lab. 

Joe chuckled ruefully. "They're pretty pissed off," he agreed. She swallowed hard, braced herself for the "it was nice while it lasted" speech. Instead, she felt the bed give as he perched on the edge, felt his free hand touch her cheek. "Hey, look at me."

Opening her eyes took a considerable amount of effort, but she did it. "I never wanted this to happen..." she told him and he shook his head. 

"This was not your fault, you understand me?" She'd heard that voice before - it was his detective voice, his not taking any nonsense from you voice. "Barry and Iris are mad, that's fine. They've been mad at me before... and honestly? They've got a right to be. We should have been upfront before now. We both knew that already." His hand slid from her cheek down along her arm and he ended up holding her two hands in both of his, squeezing them tightly. "And how they found out is... not exactly ideal..." She chuckled humourlessly at the understatement. "But we'll deal with it." She wanted to believe him, maybe more than she'd ever wanted to believe anything but the words froze in her throat. Maybe he saw that too because he blinked, looked uncertain. "Unless you don't want to... in which case, you'd better have a damn good reason, other than the noble stuff you tried to sell me after the reactor..."

Caitlin shook her head, recalling her arguments of the previous week, that they didn't know how or if the explosion would affect her, and once they'd known it had affected her, that they didn't know how bad it would be. She'd argued that for his safety, they should take a break; he'd refused in no uncertain terms. But now they knew exactly how bad things could get with her and it was worse than she'd ever anticipated. "Joe, I could have killed people today."

"But you didn't." His fingers squeezed hers again. "And you can learn to control it, you did earlier on... and now Cisco and Wells have this serum..." He let go of her hand to gesture to the syringe; she felt the loss of it immediately. "We can get through this, Catie..."

Tears sprang to her eyes at the endearment and she shook her head. "Your life would be so much easier if we'd never met," she told him and he tilted his head as if he was considering that, one shoulder rising and falling in a shrug. 

"If we'd never met... if the accelerator never went up, if Barry never got his powers... my life would be easier, no doubt." His hands moved to her cheeks, cupped them as her hands closed over his wrists. "But I'll tell you what... it wouldn't be half as interesting." He was smiling as he said it and, just like  always, she found herself wanting to smile back. 

He leaned in then, slowly, carefully, just like he had that very first time, like he was giving her the opportunity to back out if this wasn't what she wanted.   
   
She hadn't backed out then and she didn't now, kissed him back as she wound her arms around his neck and held on for dear life. 

 

*

 Joe didn't want to go home, didn't want to leave Caitlin, but she'd insisted, saying that she was in good hands with Cisco and Wells (he only half agreed) and that when the time gave to give the serum,  she would call him. He'd made her promise, made Cisco promise for good measure before heading back to his place.

And instantly regretting it. 

Barry wasn't there, wasn't picking up his cell. Iris didn't answer hers either, and with a father's sense, Joe was pretty sure that wherever they were, they were together. He was just surprised his ears weren't burning. 

He'd settled himself on the couch, trying to watch the game when the doorbell rang. He gave serious thought as to whether he should answer it before deciding that he was too damn old to hide like a scared kid. Still he was relieved, and more than a little surprised, to see Eddie standing there, a six pack of beer in his hand. "Hey, partner," he said, holding it up. "Thought you might like to have a beer and watch the game."

Joe stepped back to let him in, asking the question that just begged to be asked. "Iris know you're here?"

Eddie looked over his shoulder at Joe and raised an eyebrow in response. "Iris and Barry are at our place," he told Joe as he handed him a beer, "discussing the finer points of how this happened and why this happened and how could they not tell us this happened..." From the tone of his voice, Joe deduced that if Eddie had been having this conversation with anyone else, he'd be rolling his eyes. "I figured I'd leave them to it."

Joe twisted the top off his beer, watched as Eddie did the same. "So you're not here to soften up the dirt?"

This time, Eddie did roll his eyes. Dropping into an armchair, he shook his head. "I'm not here as your daughter's boyfriend," he told him. "I'm here as your partner... maybe as a friend." Joe recalled a certain conversation when he'd just found out about Eddie and Iris, raised his beer to his lips to wash away the sudden shame. "And definitely as someone who knows a little about clandestine relationships." That was said with a self-effacing grin, one that made Joe chuckle. "They'll get over it, Joe... They just need to get the shock out of their system, that's all."

Joe snorted. "Yeah, 'cause that worked so well for you and me."

"We still got there," Eddie reminded him and Joe had to give him that, tilted his beer in acknowledgement. "It's ironic, actually... Iris was only talking about this a couple of weeks ago, wondering if there was anyone we could set you up with... She thought you'd been alone too long."

"Yeah?" Joe felt his eyes grow wide with surprise because Iris had never mentioned that to him. "What did you tell her?"

It was Eddie's turn to chuckle. "Not that you were already seeing someone, that's for sure." Joe must have looked even more surprised at that because Eddie's face lit up with laughter. "I'm your partner, Joe... you think I didn't know something was different about you?"

Joe rubbed a hand over his face. "I thought we'd done a better job than that."

"I didn't say I knew who it was," Eddie amended. "That was a surprise. But I knew there was someone. And I knew whoever it was that they were making you happy." He shrugged. "Anything else didn't seem to matter."

"Feel like telling Iris that?"

"I will... once she calms down enough to talk to her about it. She's a stubborn woman." That was said with a rueful chuckle, with a look on his face that was a head tilt towards fondness. Joe knew that look, had worn it countless times when talking about Iris and, before that, her mother. 

"She didn't pick that off the ground," he admitted and Eddie grinned before looking to the stairs and up, as if something had just occurred to him.

 "I'm not interrupting, am I? Barry didn't say where Caitlin..."

"She's at STAR Labs," Joe told him. "Cisco and Doctor Wells wanted to keep an eye on her... I would have stayed but she told me to go home, get some rest myself..." He pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "Not sure how I'm supposed to do that."

Eddie looked at the television.  "Beer and baseball's a good start."

Joe nodded. "You got that right." His mind, though, wasn't even half on the game, thinking instead of Barry and Iris and Caitlin and wondering how things were ever going to sort themselves out. 

*

When Iris woke up the next morning, it was with some surprise to see the bed beside her was empty. Frowning, she checked her phone because it wasn't like Eddie to not come home without leaving her some sort of message. There were no missed calls it on though, save the ones she'd ignored from her father, and the memory of what she'd seen the previous day made her stomach churn anew. Pushing her hair back from her face impatiently, she trudged out into the living room, said good morning to Barry who was just waking up on the couch and she'd just set the coffee to brew when the door opened and Eddie walked in. 

"Hey," she said, going over and reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Where were you last night?" 

He didn't look like he'd spent all night working and when he reached up to scratch the back of his neck as he started to speak, she had a sudden suspicion of what he was going to say. "I was at Joe's," he said, confirming her suspicion. "I crashed on the couch there."

Iris narrowed her eyes. "You went to see my dad?"

Eddie glanced over at Barry who was standing beside the couch, suddenly wide awake. It looked as if Eddie was deciding what to say but it only took a second for him to make up his mind and look back at Iris. "No. I went to see my partner." There was the faintest hint of asperity in his voice which was still more than she'd ever heard directed at her, absent their Flash related disagreements. "He had a pretty rough day yesterday... see, he's been on his own for a long time and he's finally found someone, except she had an accident at work that could have killed her." He glanced over at Barry again, checking to make sure he was listening. Barry's flushed cheeks were a sure sign he was. "And when his two kids found out about them, they were too busy being pissed off that he hadn't told them to listen to him explain why, let alone check that he was ok." 

Iris crossed her arms over her chest. "We had a right to know-" she started, but Eddie didn't let her finish. 

"People in glass houses, Iris, you ever hear that one?"

He was mad, she realised suddenly. At her. She didn't like the feeling, shook her head as if that would clear it. "That was different," she protested. "We didn't tell my dad because..."

"We didn't know what we were doing, if we were going to be serious or not. Then because we didn't know how he'd react, but we were afraid it wouldn't be good." Eddie's lips were pressed into a thin line. "Iris, it's exactly the same."

"Did he tell you that?" It was Barry's voice but Iris's sentiment too and once again, Eddie shook his head. 

"He didn't have to. It's written all over his face." He looked from Barry to Iris and back again. "You just have to look." When neither replied, he blew a stream of air between his lips. "Look, you do what you think you need to do. I'm just here for a quick shower and change, then I'm meeting Joe at STAR Labs."

That got their attention. "Why?" they asked in unison. 

"Cisco and Wells have some sort of serum they think will help Caitlin. They're going to administer it in-" He checked his watch. "-an hour. Joe's going to be there for Caitlin... someone should be there for him."

With that, he turned on his heel, leaving Iris and Barry both staring after him. 

*

"Good morning, beautiful." 

Caitlin turned her head towards the door, a smile coming to her face when she saw Joe. "Hey," she said as he came over to the bed, taking her hand and leaning down to kiss her cheek. She wasn't going to let him away with that though and at the last minute she turned her head so that he got her lips instead and she felt his lips curl in a smile against hers. Closing her eyes she let herself get lost in him, the touch of his fingers on her skin, the scent of his cologne and, deeper still, the shower gel he used, the one she had a bottle of in her apartment for those rare occasions he got to use it. 

When they broke apart, he was still smiling as he reached up to touch her cheek. "Good morning," he said again, all his emphasis on the first word and she found herself grinning back at him. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," she told him but she could feel her smile starting to falter. He must have seen it too because he lifted an eyebrow in silent question. "Scared," she admitted and his hands found here, squeezed tightly. "What if the serum doesn't work... what if it makes things worse..."

"You think Cisco and Wells are going to give you something they're not one hundred per cent sure of?" Joe shook his head. "You know better than that."  
   
She did, but it was easy to know that in the abstract. When you were the one who was actually on the receiving end, Caitlin was finding that things were a bit different. "So you trust them?" she heard herself asking and when he blinked, then looked down at their joined hands, she had her answer. "Or just Cisco?"

Joe bit his lip as he looked up, suddenly sheepish. "You know about that?"

"You hide it well," Caitlin told him. "And you've never said anything to me about it... but I figured out a while ago you didn't quite trust Doctor Wells." She didn't ask him why, didn't need to. She'd heard things he'd said to Barry, things he'd said on the phone to Eddie when he didn't realise she could hear him. But she'd never asked him about it before now, because he'd been so careful not to put her in the middle so she'd seen no reason to put herself there. 

"I trust you," he told her now. "And I trust Cisco. As for Wells..." He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "I don't trust him. But I trust him with you. You mean a lot to him, Caitlin... I know he won't let anything happen to you." Caitlin nodded but didn't speak and he must have misinterpreted her silence for doubt because he continued, "Hey, if you don't want to do this, just say the word, we can leave right now."

Caitlin lifted one eyebrow. "And what happens the next time I get upset and go Killer Frost on everyone?" Cisco's nicknames usually made them both smile; this was the exception. 

Except Joe was smiling. "I figure I can whisk you away somewhere warm before that happens... spend our days on a deserted beach somewhere, sand between our toes, you in my arms, no frost to be found..."

It was a wonderful dream, even if she knew it could never come to pass. "And leave all this?" she quipped and he smiled too, even if his eyes were serious. 

"We can leave," he told her. "I called Singh this morning, told him I needed to take a personal day... We can go home, cuddle up on the couch, watch bad 50s sci-fi that makes you roll your eyes..."

He was teasing her, but she was still too stuck on the idea that he'd gone to such trouble to comment on it. "Promise me we'll do that afterwards."

Joe didn't hesitate, although he did lean forward to bring his lips to hers. "I promise," he said before he kissed her. This time it was a brief kiss and when he pulled back, it was just far enough that he could rest his forehead against hers. "We're gonna get through this, Catie," he promised, his voice that low rumble that never failed to send shivers down her spine. "It's gonna be fine."

At that moment, they were disturbed by the sound of a throat being cleared. Looking around, they saw Cisco standing by the door, ever present tablet in his hand, shifting on his feet nervously. "Sorry to interrupt," he said, glancing over his shoulder to the corridor beyond. "There's just some visitors here to see you."

Looking more nervous than ever, he stepped to the side to allow Barry, Iris and Eddie to enter. Caitlin felt herself grow cold all over and her initial impulse was to drop Joe's hands, move away from him. Joe's impulse seemed to be the exact opposite however, with him gripping her hands tighter. "What are you doing here?" he asked, sounding like he didn't know whether to be hopeful or nervous. 

Iris looked over her shoulder at Eddie. "Eddie told us about the serum," she said and Eddie waved his hand, an unapologetic grin on his face. "We wanted to be here."

"Why?" Joe asked, at the same time as Caitlin said, "That's nice of you."

Iris took a deep breath that moved her shoulders almost all the way up to her ears. "Because you're my dad," she said to Joe, then, looking at Caitlin, "and you're my friend. And I'm still mad you didn't tell us, but..." She took another deep breath, glancing back to send a small smile Eddie's way. "I understand why." 

"Me too," said Barry, stepping forwards to stand beside Iris. "I'm sorry, Joe, for what I said yesterday... I was mad and I was worried about Caitlin... but that's no excuse."

Joe stood, eyes shiny and hugged them both. "Thank you," he said when he stepped back, standing beside Caitlin and once more taking her hand in his. "That means a lot to both of us." His free hand closed over their joined ones as he looked down at her. "And we will talk about this... answer any questions you have... once Caitlin is better."

"That sounds like our cue." Cisco stepped towards them, Doctor Wells by his side and Caitlin blinked in surprise - she'd been so intent on the West-Allen family that she hadn't even noticed him coming in. Joe stepped back to let them approach her but he didn't let go of her hand, didn't move any farther away than he absolutely had to, not even Doctor Wells looked at him curiously, head tilted. 

"Don't even think about telling me to move." Joe looked at Wells like he was insane to even be considering it and Wells reacted by smiling a small smile. 

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said. Cisco produced the syringe, Wells took it from him and held took Caitlin's other arm. "Ready?"

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked first at him, then at Joe. "As I'll ever be." One final glance at Wells and then she was looking at Joe and only Joe, feeling his hands tighten on hers, seeing his jaw set in a frown because he could see from his vantage point what she refused to, Wells pushing the plunger, injecting her with the serum. 

The first she knew that it was definitely working was when heat began to flow through her veins, pleasant at first but steadily increasing in intensity. She'd promised herself she would be brave but she must have winced despite herself because Joe's hands tightened on hers. "Caitlin?"

"It burns," she managed to whisper, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back tears. She was barely aware of one of Joe's hands leaving hers, his hand sliding across her back to come to rest on her shoulder so that he was holding her, supporting her. 

"Is this supposed to happen?" she heard him say but nobody replied. 

All the while, the pain kept building and building, liquid fire coursing through her veins, leaving her biting her lip to keep from crying out loud, twisting this way and that as it held her captive, a pair of strong arms, a quiet voice murmuring words she couldn't even make out her only shelter from the storm. 

Then, suddenly, it eased. 

The pain receded and it became easier to breathe, possible to open her eyes. She was shaking from head to foot, she realised, and were it not for Joe's arms around her, she didn't think she'd be able to sit up. Her breathing was ragged, loud in her ears and Joe's hand caressed her cheek, worry  all over his face as he stared down at her. He didn't say a word, didn't have to because she could read his question plainly in his face. She nodded her head, or at least she tried to, didn't know if she managed it or not. "Fine," she managed to whisper. "I'm fine."

He looked like he was going to argue with her but he held his tongue. Instead it was Barry who spoke. "Did it work?"

Caitlin looked at Wells who was eyeing her appraisingly. "We'll need to do blood work," he said slowly, cautiously. "Caitlin, how do you feel?"

The pain might be gone but she could still feel the serum zinging through her veins, like the strongest cup of coffee she's ever had in her life, multiplied exponentially. "Like it worked," she told him honestly and his lips quirked up in the tiniest of smiles. 

"Let me check," he replied, producing a clean syringe and taking a blood sample. When he was finished, he laid a hand on her shoulder. "You should get some rest," he told her but suddenly the last thing she wanted to do was stay in that room, on that bed. 

"I want to go home," she said and when he and Cisco looked at one another, she turned to Joe. "Please... take me home."

Joe didn't blink. "Let's go."

*

When Joe said he was going to take Caitlin home, he half expected Wells to put up a fight and indeed Wells had opened his mouth as if to say something. One look at Joe's face though and he pressed his lips together in a thin line before exacting a promise that at the first sign of trouble, Joe would bring her back to STAR Labs. Joe hadn't said much in response, just given him a look that he hoped conveyed the question, "Do you think I'm an idiot" because he knew that at the first sign of trouble, he'd be on the phone to Barry who would take her to STAR Labs faster than any ambulance ever could. That done, he helped Caitlin stand, steadied her when she wobbled perilously, waited until she felt strong enough to put one foot in front of the other. Even then, she leaned on him more than she had ever done before, and once they got out of sight of everyone in the lab, he all but carried her to his car. 

Once settled in the car, she closed her eyes, didn't move a muscle all the way back to her place, not even when the car stopped moving. He woke her up gently, a hand to her shoulder doing the job and she leaned on him heavily as they walked inside, one of her arms around his waist, one of his over her shoulders. 

"Home sweet home," he said as he helped her hang up her coat, put his on the hook beside it. She smiled up at him and he did something he'd wanted to do for the last twenty four hours, ever since it has become clear that something was terribly wrong with her. He took her in his arms, held her tight, pressing his body to hers and closing his eyes. Her arms slid around his waist and she sighed as she laid her cheek on his chest, his chin resting on the top of her head. 

He didn't know how long they stood there like that, just holding one another. He was the one who pulled back first, cupping her face in his hands and brushing a kiss over her lips. He wanted to tell her he was glad she was ok, how scared he'd been when he'd seen her in that alley, sure he'd lost her for good. He held back though, because that wasn't what Caitlin needed  to hear. Instead, he rested his hands on her shoulders, kneading them gently. "Come on," he said, jerking his chin in the direction of her living room. "I seem to recall you and me having a date on your couch..."

Caitlin smiled as she took him by the hand and lead him over. He sat down first, stretching his legs out in front of him, but not daring to put them on the coffee table - once bitten and all that. Caitlin sat down beside him, pulling her shoes off before swinging her legs up on the couch, settling back to use his chest as support for her back. Her head nestled into his shoulder, one of his arms moved around and over her waist, holding her close to him, her hands closing over his.  

"Comfortable?" he asked and she nodded, bringing their joined hands up so she could kiss the back of his hand. 

"I thought for a while we wouldn't get to do this again," she told him. "That you'd be looking at me through glass in the pipeline..." This close, he could feel the shudder that ran through her body and he made a "pfft" noise as he shook his head. 

"We would never let that happen," he promised her, and he meant it. "Catie, I would never have let that happen to you."

"I know." She moved her head so that she could look up at him, gave him the tiniest smile he'd ever seen. "Even in the alley... I wasn't thinking straight, I know that.... but I knew I could trust you. I knew you wouldn't let anything happen to me."

The memory of her in that alley made his blood run cold and he held onto the only positive moment in the whole thing, that when he spoke to her, she heard him, that she listened to him and came back to him. "Always," he told her, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. She smiled up at him then, a real smile, the kind that went all the way up to her eyes and he heard the words fall from his lips before he even realised he'd said them. "I love you, Caitlin."

If anything, her smile grew brighter, more brilliant, warmer. "I love you too," she said as she turned in his arms and kissed him. 

After that, there was no more need for words.


End file.
